Browsing Category Uganda

We have had our first visitors from the Netherlands! Marloes’ friend Eva, who brought along Karine, visited us during the first two weeks of April. We hastily got our shower fixed (it broke down 2 days before they were supposed to arrive) and borrowed a spare bed to put in the guest room, so we were all set to receive them. After Marloes picked them up from Entebbe airport in the early hours of Sunday April 1st, we were very happy the next morning to find out that they brought us some Dutch candy, a bundle of recent Dutch magazines and some H&M clothing (shopping ain’t too good over here) . Marloes took them for a little tour of the surroundings and on Sunday evening we had dinner at Cassia lodge where they met some of our local friends and their guide for the next day, because on Monday the girls set out for a Boda Boda tour of Kampala. They were bound to see a lot of Uganda in the two weeks that they were spending here, as on Tuesday they already headed out by bus to Lake Bunyonyi, where Marloes and I spent a weekend in February (see the previous post, I have also added some of their pictures to the gallery down below). After they relaxed there for a few days, we picked them up on Thursday in Mbarara, so we could embark on our coolest trip in Uganda yet: Queen Elizabeth National Park (QENP)!

Completely on top of this post there is a video of a wild elephant we saw while taking a boat trip on the Kazinga Channel in QENP, just a few miles from Mweya Hostel – our accommodation on a peninsula inside the park. Since we had to pass through Mbarara in the west, it was quite a trip, starting from Kampala at 10 AM where we picked up the Toyota Rav 4 we rented from Laura & Okke’s Roadtrip Uganda. After the four hour trip to Mbarara and picking up Eva & Karine we drove up in the general direction of Kasese, On the way we passed some beautiful views of the savannah plains where we would be making a game drive on early Friday morning. Besides the obligatory photo stops, we also had to slow down a few times to let some very interested baboons pass our car.

We arrived a bit late at Katunguru Gate, one of the entrances to the parts of the park which are protected by armed Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) rangers to keep out poachers. It was already 6 PM and getting dark, and we had about half an hour to go on a dirt road to reach Mweya Hostel, which had another gate which would close at 7 PM. Amazingly Google Maps on the iPhone showed the main tracks towards the hostel (which lies on a small peninsula on the shores of Lake Edward), so navigating was quite easy. And, the time of day actually must have been our luck because the moment we passed through the gate we immediately spotted a grazing hippo, a waterbuck and a few warthogs. Around sundown a lot of the animals in the park come out of hiding to drink or eat. Marloes did some proper dirt road 4×4 driving to get us to the hostel in time, all the while passing just 1 car which actually was driven by an acquaintance from Kampala – what are the odds 400km from home in a 2,000 square km park!

After some cold Tuskers we went to bed early, as the next morning we left at first light at 6.30 AM to go spot some game! As you can see from the pictures, we weren’t disappointed. Besides a beautiful sunset, we quickly saw a large herd of elephants and some buffalo’s going for a drink in one of the volcanic crater lakes. QENP is close to the Rwenzori Mountain range – you can actually see some of the 5,000 meters high giants in the background all the while you are in the park, and some of these mountains are extinct volcanoes. We then drove up to another part of the park which has a lot of breeding ground for various kinds of antelope, which in turn attracts lions and other big cats. Unfortunately we didn’t spot lions, just some of the remains of meals they had, but we did see a lot of warthog, buffalo, waterbuck, Uganda kob and some hippo’s in a village on the shores of the small Lake George.

We headed back to the hostel around midday where, during a very violent thunderstorm, we celebrated Karine’s birthday with some apple pie we brought from Kampala. Luckily the weather cleared up so we could get on a boat to make an afternoon launch trip on the Kazinga Channel (a narrow natural stream between Lakes George and Edward). Besides a lot of birds & hippo’s and buffalo’s relaxing in the water, the absolute highlights were a number of crocodiles and a single drinking elephant which was so close we could almost touch it – see the video on top of this post. While fooling around with the settings of our camera I also made this cool slowmotion video (no sound) of a bird which was flying alongside our boat:

The boat trip was cut short when another thunderstorm broke out, which even prevented the boat from docking at the jetty for about half an hour, while big parts of swamp were suddenly floating past – a very odd sight. We were a bit scared if our car, which I stupidly parked just a few meters from the water, was either going to get stuck or would slide together with the mud into the water, but neither happened and we could easily get back to our hostel, just up the hill.

In the evening we had a splendid buffet at the nearby Mweya lodge, after which we left the next morning to head back to Kampala, via a scenic road past Fort Portal in the north. This was another great drive, first past some more elephants and dueling Uganda kobs, then getting some great sights at the Rwenzori Mountains and on the way back from Fort Portal to Kampala passing some beautiful forests and jungle and also seeing some more monkeys and parrots just beside the public road.

See the pictures below for some nice shots of the wildlife we spotted. The next few posts will be about trips Marloes, Eva and Karine made to Jinja, to the east of Kampala, and Murchison Falls National Park, midway up to the north of Uganda.

Photo Gallery

During the last weekend of February we visited Lake Bunyonyi in the extreme southwest of Uganda, near the borders with Rwanda and Congo. This lake is actually a flooded valley surrounded by steep hills and lies at an altitude of almost 2,000m. Because of this it can be quite chilly at nights, so we were quite happy our treehouse was equipped with some blankets! The road from Kampala to Lake Bunyonyi takes you past the equator and the cities of Masaka, Mbarara and Kabale. In all of these towns SolarNow has branches, and we spent Thursday night in Kabale so Marloes could meet with the local staff. We actually drove up there with Dennis, one of SolarNow’s drivers, so along the way we also delivered some solar systems at various branches and franchisees.

Before you reach Mbarara (the “dairy country” – a lot of Uganda’s milk comes from this region, but there is also a large Coca Cola plant just outside town), you also pass Lake Mburo National Park. If you are lucky you can spot some zebra’s alongside the road here (Marloes saw one the first time she drove here), but not this time unfortunately.

On Friday morning we left Kabale for a 10km ride on two Boda Boda’s (moped taxi’s) to the Lake, over a so-called ‘all-weather’ dirt road through a dense forest. The road actually was quite good, without many of the pot holes we have gotten used to. The excellent state of the road also meant our drivers thought it was perfectly fine to race each other, so we had to slow them down a bit. The last 2km’s there is a steep descent with some great views of the Lake, which also is the cue for the Boda Boda drivers to switch off their engines to save some fuel… We stayed in the Bunyonyi Overland Resort, which besides backpackers like us also hosts ‘overland cruises’, big (converted) 4×4 trucks (the type of trucks that race in the Dakar rally) that carry a group of people and their camping gear for a ‘cruise’ in Africa. These trucks can easily drive over dirt roads and even go off-road without much trouble, so for groups of friends that is a great way to travel, as you basically don’t need lodging. The Overland Resort has a special parking space and camping grounds for these kind of trips. The Lonely Planet warned it could get pretty noisy over here, but luckily enough there was just one such truck when we were there. The next day we took a seven (!) hour canoe trip on a dug-out canoe (basically a floating log, with corresponding agility…), which was pretty tough and took over an hour before we managed to get the thing going in the direction we wanted to. All-in-all still a very nice trip, as we managed to visit some of the lake islands, had lunch on top of a hill and spotted a grey crowned crane (Uganda’s national bird) in the bushes while floating past – too bad we were too busy to keep going in one direction that we couldn’t take a picture.

In this region you can also track mountain gorilla’s in nearby Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, something we very much would like to do one time, albeit that the tracking permits of 500 USD pp for one hour with the wild gorilla’s are a tad expensive, ahum. Hopefully we can get a good deal sometime in the future. For some people this is not really an obstacle it seems though: An Irish girl whom we met at the Overland Resort told us that a few days before an American couple bought all 64 available permits for a single day. They wanted to spend some time with the gorilla’s while absolutely not meeting any other tourists… Besides the money, this must have been quite a hassle to arrange, since the park the different gorilla groups live in is spread out accross Uganda, Rwanda and Congo, so they bought all tickets available in all three countries.

Instead of going on this trek now, we went back from Lake Bunyonyi to Kabale on Sunday morning and then on a 8-hour bus trip back to Kampala, which was not as bad as expected, although some of the fellow passengers would do good to learn about the magic workings of deodorant… The guy sitting in front of Marloes apparently also had a bit too much to drink the evening before, while he was trying to spice up the country side some of his filth actually landed on Marloes her lap, blegh! That, and the usual 2 hour traffic jam in Kampala were the only downsides on an otherwise great weekend!

Google Maps Location

Wondering where to find Lake Bunyonyi? See the map below, you can use the normal Google Maps controls such as zooming in and out, switching between terrain, road and satellite views and dragging the map to move around.

Good thing it is not all work here, as we took a boat to the Banda Island Reggae Bash during the first weekend of February. This is the smallest of the Ssese Islands and is, according to the Lonely Planet:

A once legendary place for backpackers and a perfect location for an island escape…

The reason why it is ‘legendary’, is because the eccentric mzungu Kenyan owner Dominic (a third generation white Kenyan) had his own little kingdom there, entertaining his guests with lavish feasts and stories about how he, somewhere in East Congo, dug up the diamonds he used to buy the island. Being a lover of good food and loads of alcohol he found an unfortunate premature death when his liver stopped functioning, which left Banda Island pretty much deserted and uncared for. Recently, new caretakers have taken up the task of bringing Banda back to life by organizing regular events, such as the Reggae Bash we attended when we were there with a group of about 40 people.

The Ssese Island group consist of 84 islands in Lake Victoria, a few hours by boat from Entebbe. It used to be a prime chill-out destination, but since the regular ferry service from Port Bell near Kampala was suspended in 1997 it has been a bit harder to reach them. The bigger islands are served by a ferry again, but to get to tiny Banda you have to rely on open fishing boats, like the one we took. The ride itself isn’t that pleasant – three hours with no protection from the sun – but at least we didn’t forget to bring some drinks to enjoy ourselves with the crowd.

The Ssese islands got their name from the Tsetse sleeping sickness (Ssese = Tsetse), which killed a large number of island inhabitants in the early 20th century and caused most of them to flee to the mainland. Since the islands were left largely deserted they gained some reputation as a Wild West area as, according to the guide books, wanted criminals from around East Africa sought refuge there. It also meant islands like Banda remained mostly untouched, so when you arrive you feel a bit like Robinson stepping foot on an uninhabited jungle island.

All in all a great way to spend a relaxing weekend, hanging around on the beach (be careful a bit about Bilharzia though – a parasite found in large fresh water bodies such as Lake Victoria) and listening to live Reggae.

Google Maps Location

Photo Gallery

Two weeks of hunting and we found a place to live in Kampala, which wasn’t any moment too soon as living out of a suitcase -and in my case doing a lot of working from the hotel bed – was starting to get pretty annoying.

We contacted a number of local ‘brokers’, but most of these were actually just some people who drive you around for a fee (if they even have a car, which a lot of them don’t so you need to arrange their transport as well). They bring you to places they just happen to know which are in need of tenants, pretty much regardless of what you are looking for.

The way it works is that if you decide to take a place they additionally ask both you and the owner a commission fee, so they just knock on a lot of doors and hope somebody will bite. Of the about 10 people who took us around, only one was a legitimate broker, and he actually spoke some Dutch as he studied in Groningen for a while and is married to a Dutch woman. Unfortunately the place we were showed was nice, but right next door to a stone quarry where they regularly blow things up with dynamite – that made it easy to keep on looking…

Great view and spot for a garden party, too bad the attached house was a bit of a 'fixer'...

So, we ended up looking at maybe 25 places in total, some of which were actually quite nice, some we saw multiple times with different people, but mostly a lot at highly inflated prices or too far out of the way of what we were looking for. We also looked at furnished places, but those are only recommended if you like 1950s styling… At one point it seemed it could be a very long time before we would find something reasonable to live in. But then, as I was visiting some more places on a Thursday afternoon and was actually about to get back to the hotel (two of the places I had already seen before, one place I did like happened to be already taken, and the other places literally seemed about to fall apart), the guys taking me around suddenly thought of one more place in Buziga. “Okay, let’s view it, but that’s the final one as I am about done with it,” I said, and you guess it: the apartment was actually very nice & affordable, not too far from Marloes’ office and in a quiet neigbourhood with views of both the city and Lake Victoria.

To fit or not to fit...but in the end it did!

So, after Marloes saw the pictures and we gave it another visit together on the following Saturday morning we took it! We then quickly embarked on finding some furniture and kitchen equipment which was another challenge in itself. Furniture here you buy at one of the street side markets. We borrowed a van of SolarNow, which we somehow managed to fill up to the latest free cm3, so that night we at least had some places to sit and a bed to sleep in. Getting the stuff in the van was hilarious by the way as a bunch of friendly random helpers didn’t really grasp the concept of taking care of our newly bought stuff, but in the end it all worked out.

The next morning however we noticed there were still some things not completely in order with the apartment… To cut a long story short: after three long weeks of daily visits of various kinds of workers: electricians, plumbers, carpenters and so on, a leaking roof, days on end without any water and electricity (there are frequent 24h power cuts here), a new bathroom wall (after a carpenter accidently hit a water pipe and everything came down as a result), new doors and god knows what else, everything seems to be working O.K. now! We can take a hot shower in either of the 2 bathrooms and the generator outside spurs to life when the power goes down again. Now if somebody could just shut up those stray dogs at night and tell the mosque and church in the area to keep it down a bit at 5.30 AM, everything will be perfect

View from the pool at Cassia Lodge, almost around the corner of our place!

Other than that, good news for any potential visitors: we live near two nice resorts, so swimming pools with a great view are within a few minutes’ distance. The Cassia Lodge, which is nearest, is located on top of Buziga hill – with a bit of the luck the pool is not crowded at all, so the next best thing to having your own pool

The next item on our wish list is a 4×4 car, so we can move around a bit more easily and buy the rest of the outfitting – a comfy couch and some curtains would be very welcome . We already tried a cheap Toyota RAV 4, but it I hadn’t driven 10 meters with it – on the left side for the first time ever as well – before I had a flat tire. Later on it also appeared to have some hidden damage under the bonnet, so we quickly returned it and are on the lookout for a good deal.

After months of preparations and a few final weeks in the Netherlands which felt a bit like a farewell tour, we have finally landed at Entebbe Airport on Saturday January 14th 2012, at around 09.00 local time.

Somewhere in the early fall of 2011 Marloes accepted a job with Dutch Solar Power company SolarNow, for which she – when it was still the Rural Energy Foundation – had been in Mali a few years before already. Her job here in Uganda will be boosting the sales of Solar Home Systems, mainly for the rural markets. As Vincent works freelance as a Marketing & Strategy consultant, and serves most of his current clients through the Internet anyway, it was not too difficult to tag along and move base, just pack up the laptop and go.

After we arranged a whole bunch of things before departure, such as getting the required vaccinations and moving our personal stuff into storage, the last few weeks before departure were mainly revolving around saying goodbye. One week before we left we threw a farewell party, where in total about 100 of our friends and family came to say goodbye. This was a great evening and it was a lot of fun to see all these people one last time before we were about to leave. The last week was spent having some final goodbye meetings (having dinner in Wolfheze at Vincent’s parents, doing drinks and lunches with friends) and buying loads of small stuff we needed to take with us.

The Wednesday before departure gave us a bit of African chaos, or at least we thought so (we have been here now for one month, and without any incidents on the ground so far actually). What happened was that we went to Leiden to meet some people and buy some travel supplies, after which Marloes would go on to the Hague and Vincent to Amsterdam. But, just as we arrived and Marloes parked the car, a robbery of a jewelry store took place, including some shooting in the crowded streets – right around where the car was parked. The result was that we couldn’t take it for hours because of closed off streets and police investigations, so the day schedule went up in smoke, and we were even more eager to leave for a sunny and relaxed place. On Thursday we moved out of Amsterdam to Utrecht, to stay at Marloes’ parents.

After some stressful final packing, a whole bunch of people showed up at Schiphol Airport to wave us goodbye. A very big and nice surprise! After the final hugs and receiving some small presents to take along on the plane (a big bag of drop, yay! and some nice booklets, including a homemade survival guide of the Tinholts – brilliant!), it was time to leave.

The moment we walked through the customs gate we suddenly realized we were done arranging, planning and saying goodbye – no way back anymore at that time. Thanks to Marloes’ brother Marten, we had access to the KLM lounge at Schiphol where we could chill out and grab some complimentary Champagne to drink to our upcoming adventure, before boarding our flight with Kenya Airways to Entebbe via Nairobi.

Say what? Just 4000+ miles still to go...

Then, perhaps because it was Friday the 13th – we don’t really know – but the flight wasn’t one we will quickly forget. About one hour into the flight, we were cruising up somewhere over Germany, it was announced that there was a medical emergency on board, followed by quite a scuffle and running around. Eventually it emerged that someone in the back of the plane had actually died while we were up there in the air, leaving the aircraft crew rather panicked and unorganized. The flight just went on anyway, but the atmosphere on board was pretty eerie. The moment we landed a number of local authorities boarded the plane and we had to wait a while before we were allowed to get off, as they obviously had to sort out some things. We couldn’t imagine how the people who might be waiting in Nairobi to pick up this passenger must have been feeling when the person they were waiting for was not getting off the plane.

Mt. Kenya pretty much as we saw it from the plane, heading for Nairobi (we did not take this picture though). The image on the top of this post is also featuring Mt. Kenya.

However, just about 30 minutes before we landed at Nairobi, we flew right passed Mount Kenya at sunrise, which was quite an amazing sight and a welcome distraction. After Tanzania’s Kilimanjaro, Mount Kenya is the second highest mountain in Africa, and like the Kilimanjaro it is a popular climbing and trekking destination. So, seeing the sunrise over Mount Kenya was one item we could already tick off our lengthy list of things we would like to do and see in Africa! After leaving the plane in Nairobi we had to make a run to catch our connecting flight to Entebbe. To make things even more complicated there were actually two planes at one single gate, a big queue and no clear signs which one was ours. Then, we had our first experience what it means to be a white foreigner in Africa, suddenly everybody’s attention starts to focus on you and before you know it you are escorted across an airport platform to your plane. From there it was just a short flight to Entebbe, and because the plane flew quite low, we got some breathtaking sights of the giant Lake Victoria in the early morning, as well as the very green countryside of Uganda.

First thing you see when you enter the airport is an image of a snowcapped mountain! It is actually an advert for climbing the Rwenzori Mountains in the west of Uganda.

Arriving at Entebbe the airport was very quiet. Unfortunately, even though we planned to get the money from an ATM at Schiphol, we forgot to bring the 50 USD pp to pay for the visa at the Ugandan customs. But, they didn’t make a fuss about it and let us go through to get some money and also collect our suitcases while they held on to our passports, or so we thought. First, it took Marloes about 30 minutes to find an ATM which would accept our Maestro bank cards (Visa is king here – which we conveniently both do not have), and then Vincent managed to retrieve only 1 of the 4 suitcases. So, while Marloes went back to get our visas, Vincent was experiencing a whole bunch of African red tape and bureaucratic sluggishness.Eventually, after waiting around for over an hour and explaining to the guy at the other side of the desk how his own form seemingly needed to be completed, we could leave. Not entirely sure if we would ever see our suitcases again, but hey, we were there.

Marloes’ colleague Ronald kindly picked us up to take us to Kampala, and after a drive of about an hour we dropped by the office of SolarNow in the Kansanga neighbourhood, from where we could let the people back home know we had arrived in Africa in one piece. Then we went to grab a great sandwich at the aptly named Quality Hill (which combines a hotel, restaurant, butchery and patisserie, all owned by a Belgian guy) and checked into the Alcom Hotel for the next two weeks, which is just behind the SolarNow office. After some bargaining with our new best friend Sarah the receptionist we got the price down to EUR 15 per night for a double room, which seemed reasonable enough. That this meant that we sometimes might have water and even less frequently hot water was apparently already calculated into the price. Luckily they had a generator, the sound of which was a lot better to fall asleep to than the regular noise from the street.

View on Murchison Bay from the hotel.

In the evening, after some resting, Marloes’ boss and other colleagues picked us up for a quick bite at an Ethiopian restaurant in Kabalagala (an area which is literally infested with bars and restaurants) and some drinks afterwards at the Capital Pub, where we were introduced to what they locally call ‘mosquito’ girls and Ugandans’ fondness of English Premier League football. They watch it all and everywhere – even the Matatu’s play local radio stations with Lugandan commentary on the English football matches. Getting back to the hotel room that night we were so tired it took us a few minutes to notice that the not too big room seemed even smaller somehow… then we saw it: our suitcases had arrived, within 12 hours after arriving in Uganda! Quite amazing, especially given the fact that addresses and a mail system are pretty much non-existent here.

Twistin' at the pool

Giving directions here is mainly based on picking a land mark and then hoping the other party does not miss that landmark (when you want to go to Marloes’ office you say you need to be at the Newcastle High School). They must have gotten quite good at finding the way like that over here, because we haven’t really got lost once whilst taking a taxi or having a driver. Sending us a postcard is quite another matter however, for correspondence please stick to e-mail or facebook!

The next day was Sunday, which we spent checking out the Garden City mall in the city centre to have lunch there. This is a Western-style mall, of which there are quite a few scattered in and around the city centre, most have large Kenyan or South African supermarkets and shops filled with Western products.

W.A. & Maxima in Africa!

Afterwards we took a taxi (or ‘special hire’ as they are called here, a ‘taxi’ is actually a ‘matatu’ – which is a minibus that can hold about 14 passengers) to the Commonwealth Resort in Munyonyo, for some R&R at the Olympic size pool and fitness centre.

In the evening we took a quick look at a potential house, but it was not exactly what we were looking for. It was quite close to Marloes’ office though, and since it was owned by a Dutchman, we got our coffee served in a mug with some familiar faces. This was enough excitement for the day, since Marloes was about to embark on some busy weeks with a new job and new colleagues, involving a lot of travelling around the country, while Vincent mostly stayed in Kampala to start hunting houses and get himself sorted out…